Moira Lister

Moira Lister de Gachassin-Lafite, Vicomtesse d’Orthez (6 August 1923 – 27 October 2007) was an Anglo-South African film, stage and television actress, and writer.

Born in Cape Town to Major James Lister and Margaret (née Hogan), she was educated at the Parktown Convent of the Holy Family, Johannesburg.^[1]

Career

She began her acting career on stage in South Africa and then went on to act in the London theatre at the age of 18.^[2] Lister began working in films in 1944, and appeared in such movies as The Limping Man, The Cruel Sea and The Deep Blue Sea.

She had a regular role in the first series of the BBC radio comedy Hancock's Half Hour in 1954-55^[3]. She starred in the BBC television series The Whitehall Worrier and The Very Merry Widow from 1967 to 1968^[4]. (Later series of this programme were titled The Very Merry Widow — and How!)

Lister was performing until three years before her death, touring with her highly successful one-woman show about Noël Coward.

Affiliations

She belonged to the British Catholic Stage Guild.

Naledi Award

She had been awarded the Naledi Award, a lifetime achievement award for her services to the theatre in South Africa.^[5]

Honours

• Best Actress of the Year (1971)
• Freedom of the City of London (2000)

Personal life

In 1951, Moira Lister married Jacques de Gachassin-Lafite Vicomte d’Orthez, a French officer of the Spahis, and hero of the Rif War; they had two daughters, Chantal and Christobel.

Both she and her husband are buried in the churchyard of St. Edward's Catholic church in Sutton Green, Surrey.

Publications

• The Very Merry Moira (1971)

Filmography

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Moira Lister

• Moira Lister at the Internet Movie Database
• Moira Lister - Obituary and Tribute